Björnskfestivalen 1

Björnskfestivalen 1 was the first edition of the music contest used to select the Björnsk entrant for Maia Song Contest 1. It was hosted in the city of Nýstad, in Heimili Frammistaða as part of an agreement regarding the Björnsk effort to host the Maia Song Contest the same year. The contest included a final wherein six songs competed, and the winner was decided by a combination of professional juries and a public vote. It was hosted by Kim Chi, who will also be hosting the Maia Song Contest later this year.

The final was held on 24 June 2016, with the artist Emil Berg winning the first edition of the contest with his song "Du swipa höger"

Background
In the buildup to the contest, the national broadcaster BTV began displaying billboards all around Björnska, with the intention of building hype for the selection process. They also started a twitter campaign, encouraging users to tweet "#FeelTheBjörn" along with artists they would like to see in the contest. It seems to have picked up, as there were 425k tweets about the national final before it has even started. BTV projected an estimate viewing figure of around 4.7 million.

The show ended up bringing in an average of 8.2 million viewers, peaking at 9.1 million during the time of the result. Björnskfestivalen beat the record for the most-watched show in history, the record previously being held by The Voice with an average of 5.7 million. It was also announced that 4,385,437 votes were cast in the final, and a total of 553,551 BJK was collected for charity. A grand total of 2.2 million tweets were made during the show under the hashtag '#FeelTheBjörn' as advertised by the show. The advertisement team were the most accredited for the success of the show, as it received very positive feedback from the national newspapers, as well as a 93% approval score from professional critics.

Entries
The six songs competing in the contest were chosen by executives of BTV, and were revealed to the public on 9 June 2016. They were chosen by an open call for entries, and were selected out of more than 1,000 total submissions.

The national broadcaster, Björnsk Television, described this process as "an unprecedented success" with the Exekutivproducent (executive producer) adding "I think we may do very well at the upcoming Maia Song Contest, we have a brilliant selection that we think can bring pride to our great nation". He reiterated similar words upon the ratings success of the show from the Björnsk public.

Final
The final took place on 24 June 2016.